


Once Upon a Potions Class

by TheMallowCakes (EridansGotAGirlyMouth)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fairy Tales, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-11-15
Updated: 2010-11-15
Packaged: 2017-11-29 01:14:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/681015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EridansGotAGirlyMouth/pseuds/TheMallowCakes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione loves fairy tales. Ron likes Hermione. So, he decides to give her a enchanted book of Muggle fairy tales from Flourish and Blott's. An incident in potion's class sends her and Professor Snape into the book where they will have to follow the stories to get out. Will they survive each other?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Once Upon a Potions Class

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Not mine, otherwise I would be off being rich somewhere... and Snape would've lived... Ron would've died... you get the picture.  
> Distribution: By appointment only. This has been multi-posted, by the author, to Deviantart, AFF, and FF.net. If you see it anywhere else, let me know please. :)  
> AN: Thank you to my beta reader, Lo. Without her I don't think I'd survive!  
> AN, the second: [For those of you who want the rest of the story without waiting for the uploads here... click here for the finished story.](http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2579328/MallowCakes)

Hermione Granger was eternally a hopeless romantic. Ever since she could remember she had wanted two things in her life. The first thing, she had wanted to be remembered for her intelligence and the second, to get swept away in one of those great romances like she'd read about in her story books. She wanted to be Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or Snow White she just didn't want to be dumb enough to have her finger pricked or eat a poison apple. That is to say she wanted a prince, she didn't want to need a prince.

Ron  found her love of Muggle fairy tales endearing. So endearing, in fact, that he had took out a loan from his brothers to buy her a book she's been eying in Flourish and Blotts' for months. It was a magical anthology of fairy tales. He had, had it for months before he worked up the nerve to give it to her. It had already passed Valentine's Day and her birthday and, not wanting to wait until Christmas, he had decided to just give it her before he lost his nerve completely.

"Hermione." Ron said, nervously before they made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast one morning, "I, um, got something for you."

He had been holding it, unwrapped, behind his back before bringing it around to show it to her. Her eyes saw the familiar fairy on the leather cover and she crooked an eye brow at him.

"The book I've been wanting? You can't afford this. I can't take this from you." She walked forward and tried to hand it back to him.

"No, I want you to have it. I know how much you like those silly muggle stories."

Hermione sighed. "Silly? As silly as going to a magic school with a boy who has a magic lightning bolt scar on his forehead and manages to find trouble no matter where it is?"

"Well, yeah. Sort of like that." He laughed slightly.

Not relenting, she walked forward to throw her arms around his neck, keenly turning her head so that his pursed lips missed hers and landed on her cheek.

Ron blushed slightly as the missed kiss didn't go unnoticed.

"Thank you, again." Hermione said with a warm smile.

"You're welcome. Let's head in to breakfast."

With a nod, Hermione followed him down into the Great Hall to meet Harry at the Gryffindor table. She had finally got a chance to look at the book that Ron gave her. She rubbed her fingers along the cover and the neatly stamped bronze fairy on the front of it who flitted around at her touch.

She looked over at Ron, his face stuffed with scrambled eggs as he spoke to their classmates and she cringed inside. He had tried so hard over the years to be with her, but she just couldn't see herself with him. He was rude, obnoxious, childish, but all he could talk about was Quidditch. She just couldn't bring herself to say yes, no matter how much her mother, or his, chided her.

She sighed, utterly bored again. She just wanted someone that she could talk to about things that interested her, but any time she'd bring up homework or education the boys would run away from her like she'd grown an extra hand on her chin. It was frustrating.

It put her in a bad mood for the rest of breakfast so she almost didn't notice when the boys got up to head to potions class. That was the last thing she needed at the moment, Severus Snape swooping around the classroom like a bat spouting insults at her just because he'd had a bad childhood. It wasn't her fault that his dad probably hit him or his mom put him in dresses to have tea parties with her.

She was in a worse mood by time she'd reached the dungeons. She was at her breaking point for the day and she'd barely been awake two hours. Walking in the classroom she could already see Snape was in one of his moods, but when wasn't he really?

Just bloody peachy, Hermione thought to herself as she took her usual seat next to Neville.

"Alright, Hermione?" Neville said, turning to face her.

"Alright." She said, trying to sound happier than she was, "You?"

"Yeah." He shrugged.

With a curt nod, she looked to the front of the classroom and waited for Professor Snape to start his lesson. It seemed that today they were going to be brewing a blood-replenishment potion. It was easy enough to do, she thought, she had read the entire potions textbook after all. So, she got the ingredients she'd need and brought them back to her desk to start the brew. Mixing it carefully and stirring at exactly the right times with exactly the right angle of her wand, the potion had turned a dark red and she knew she'd have to wait ten minutes before stirring it again.

Waiting for the time to pass, Hermione had time to stop Neville from adding something she was quite sure would either cause an explosion or make the imbiber speak in only Japanese for a month and a half. After that, she grew sufficiently bored to chance a glance at the first few pages of her book. She couldn't wait to get back to the dorm to read it. Glancing at the contents page she was happy to find a lot of her favourite stories in it. She flipped to the last story, The Sword in the Stone, and gazed at the moving pictures of Merlin and Wart.

"Miss Granger." A familiar deep-throated drawl pierced through her trance, "As much as I'd like to see you fail at something, we already have one Longbottom here and I'd like to keep my classroom in one piece, so if you would please turn your cauldron off and toss your ruined potion in the bin."

Hermione looked up at Snape and then down at the burnt muck in the bottom of her cauldron with a frown. She sighed and wiped her face with the palm of her hand in frustration.

"I'm going to use the rest of your fluxweed then." Ron came up from the desk behind her and grabbed at the unused plant. Hermione was getting ready to yell at him, when he turned to sit back down. His clumsy way of trying to show off was unimpressive as his elbow knocked into her cauldron spilling the sludge over the desk and all her books.

"Mister Weasly!" Snape yelled loudly, turning uncharacteristically red with anger, "Sit back down!"

Ron ran to his seat in fear as Neville grabbed for the sludge covered books with his gloved hands, trying to save Hermione's things. Yet, in true Neville fashion he knocked his own cauldron over onto the desk.

Snape was speechless for one of the first times and stood sputtering at the scene. "Out!", he managed to growl, "Everyone, out. Granger, stay."

"Sir?" Hermione said quietly.

"OUT!" He roared, "Everyone out but Miss Granger, now!"

The entire class scrambled to turn off their fires and ran out of the room, grabbing their things as they went.

"Sir, I'm sorry." Hermione said.

"What the devil has gotten in to you?" Snape said, trying his hardest to calm down.

"I've just..."

"Just what? Decided you're too bloody intelligent to pay attention in my class? 20 points from Gryffindor."

"I had a bad day." She grumbled, folding her arms. 

"Oh, really? So sad for you, Miss Granger. Maybe we should close down the school for holiday. As you know, I live to serve." He sneered, the sarcasm biting at her.

She told herself she wasn't going to cry. Not in front of this bastard. She wasn't going to give him the pleasure. Yet, tears fought to sting her eyes.

"Get this mess cleaned up and ge-" He was going to finish, but his eyes caught the book she'd been reading and he stopped, "Was this perhaps the reason for your serious lack of judgment?"

His hand went to grab the leather book out of the goopie mess, but Hermione sought to grab it first, not wanting him to confiscate it. As both their hands touched the cover the potions room became empty.

When Hermione opened her eyes she was standing next to a much younger Severus Snape in a dark bedroom and she could hear a woman and a man in the next room.

"What the hell?" Severus whispered to her, glaring at his hands in the soft moonlight that shone through the window.

Hermione shushed him before putting an ear to the door.

"We've got to, Christoph. We can't afford to feed them anymore." A woman's voice spoke.

"I don't know, Emilie. They're our children." A man's voice replied, "We can't just-"

"We can't feed them anymore." The other voice interrupted, "We don't have the money. Tomorrow we're going to take them into the woods and leave them there. Agreed?"

A sigh came, "Agreed."

"Well, fuck." Hermione stated simply.


	2. The Trail of Breadcrumbs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione loves fairy tales. Ron likes Hermione. So, he decides to give her a enchanted book of Muggle fairy tales from Flourish and Blott's. An incident in potion's class sends her and Professor Snape into the book where they will have to follow the stories to get out. Will they survive each other?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Not mine, otherwise I would be off being rich somewhere... and Snape would've lived... Ron would've died... you get the picture.  
> Distribution: By appointment only. This has been multi-posted, by the author, to Deviantart, AFF, and FF.net. If you see it anywhere else, let me know please. :)  
> AN: Thank you to my beta reader, Lo. Without her I don't think I'd survive!  
> AN, the second: [For those of you who want the rest of the story without waiting for the uploads here... click here for the finished story.](http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2579328/MallowCakes)

Snape stopped to look at her. "What is it, Miss Granger?"

"First, lower your voice. Second, you're not going to like this."

"I already 'don't like this', I assure you."

She rolled her eyes at his attempt to regain an authoritative tone.

"Surely you didn't think I was having fun?" He asked.

"None of that matters. You have to listen carefully and do what I say."

"Hardly."

"Keep your voice down!" Hermione hissed irritated with Snape's lack of cooperation,"Look, whatever happened when the two potions collided has caused us to get pulled inside my book when we touched it. It's a book of muggle tales and I'm sure you're not familiar with them, so if we're going to get through this, you're going to have to listen to me, okay?"

Severus crossed his arms defensively over his chest looking at her critically, "I'm sure we could just use magic and to get out of this little situation you've landed us in Miss Granger, that is after all why we are witches and wizards, although I do sometimes doubt your ability."

Hermione glared angrily at his words but nodded briefly at his logic and patted her pockets ideally searching for the easy way out of their little problem. Finding nothing, she glanced around the room."Well, I don't have my wand, do you?"

"I do not require a wand to perform minor tasks of magic, Miss Granger. Watch and learn. Abluere!"

Nothing happened. Severus' brows drew together in confusion, "Abluere!" He repeated and then cleared his throat, briefly side glancing Hermione before trying again, "Very well. Transfero!"

"Maybe our magic doesn't work here, where ever here is exactly." Hermione offered attentively

"Do you think?" He snapped at her, clearly frustrated by the situation they found themselves in.

"Well, it would probably be a good idea to go along with the stories as they are told and maybe we'll find a way through this."

"Are you insane?"

"Well, it would seem the most logical thing to do, at least until we know what's going on."

Severus had to admit she was right, especially since she was the only one who knew what was going on.

"Fine. What are we supposed to do?" He asked her in defeat, relenting to follow the young witches plan.

"Well, as the story goes my name is Gretel and you're Hansel. Our step-mother and father are going to take us out into the woods tomorrow and leave us there. So, we have to gather pebbles and drop them as we go. When the moon comes up, it will shine off of them and we can follow them home."

Severus' eyes narrowed as he listened to Hermione's explanations.

"That's all? What do muggles see in these stories? Bad parenting practices and inane endings?"

"No, that's not all! After we come home they'll lock us in the next time so we can't get out. Then they'll take us out again and leave us. That time we will have to take breadcrumbs. Just follow my lead, okay? You'll have to trust me here."

Severus groaned rubbing his hands over his youthful face and nodded. After they were sure they wouldn't be caught, they snuck outside and gathered the pebbles they would need. Then, they came back in and went to sleep, ready for the next morning.

"Hansel! Gretel!" A woman's voice woke them, "It's time to get up. We're going down to the woods today."

Hermione woke, hoping that it was just a bad dream and she'd be back in her bed at the top of Gryfindor tower, deep within the safety of Hogwarts and Ron would make moon eyes at her until she wanted to throw up in her Pumpkin Juice. Harry would make a joke about Draco's hair and everything would be normal again. But, no, she woke up in a small room with her professor in the next bed and they were getting ready to be left in the woods by their idiot parents.

"Wake up, honey." Their step-mother nudged Severus, "Aren't you excited for our little family outing?"

He turned on his back and looked up at her, "Ecstatic." His voice, plain.

"Come on, Hansel. Let's go." Hermione turned to him and forced a smile.

They both got up and had breakfast with their fake parents and together they all headed into the woods. Every few feet Hermione would drop a rock and then Severus would drop one. She was sure to make this work they would have to follow the stories almost exactly. She had an idea... if they could just make it to The Sword in the Stone maybe Merlin could send them back somehow.

She certainly wasn't about to tell Snape about her silly notion, but if she could just drag him along for the ride she was sure that her idea would work.

It was obvious to the both of them that the people that were supposed to be their parents were confused at the lack of conversation and general child-like qualities of their children, but they just didn't know what to say. Mostly, they went off in corners to examine the forest together, anything to get away from talking to these people.

"Hermione," Severus whispered to her as they pretended to look at some daisies, "I thought you said they were going to leave us here."

She eyed the two adults cautiously, "They probably think they can't sneak off properly. Let's busy ourselves in this bush so maybe they'll leave."

He nodded and bent over to pick at the berries with her until they heard a quick shuffling behind them and they were sure they were alone. As they both straightened a small collection of berries in each of their hands, they exchanged knowing looks, finally the story was beginning to get somewhere.

"Finally," Professor Snape said, setting down in the dirt, "I thought they'd never leave."

Hermione sat down beside him and pulled her fingers through her hair, "Me neither. This is ridiculous. I was having the worst day in history yesterday, and the last thing I needed was getting stuck in a book with my potion professor."

"Oh yes, Miss Granger. I'm sure you have it so hard what with your parading around like you know everything and your getting into mischief with the Bumbling Duo. You have it so tough."Severus answered with a sneer, after side glancing her, taking in the thick forest around them.

"Silly me, I forgot I wasn't talking to a human being." Hermione said shortly, willing herself not to let any tears fall, taking in the deep forest scenery in the opposite direction so he would not see her reaction to his words. "I won't let it happen again."

He was going to say something else, but decided to drop it, he really didn't want to deal with her at the moment anyway.

"I should let you know, we'll be together through this story, but most of the stories that follow will split us up. If my assumptions are correct, in the next story you will be a prince. I'll just need you to come and find me. That's all."

He made a noise in his throat that resembled a laugh, "You and your two trouble making, idiot friends are going to get it when we get out of here. You're going to have a thousand detentions and negative house points until you graduate when I'm done with you lot."

"Fine, whatever, I don't care right now! I get that you want everyone to be as miserable as you! All I'm trying to do is get us through this in one piece and you're being childish." She stood quickly and walked over to the other side of the clearing to sit and wait for night fall.

"I'm being childish?" He mumbled to himself, with a scowl of irritation etched into his hard face.

They didn't say another word to each other until the moon was shining through the trees, and the night air blew cold.

"It's time to go." He said, shortly, standing up and walking toward her.

She rose and started walking with him without a word. Glancing down to make sure they were following the pebbles, they made it home and walked in to find two very surprised parents sitting at the dinner table, the table set for only two people.

Hermione smirked at them, "Mama! Papa! I'm sure you were so worried. We lost you in the woods and almost couldn't find our way home."

Severus couldn't help but smile at the dripping sarcasm in her voice as their storybook parents mouths fell open. Maybe the next few days wouldn't be so drawl after all.

It was another week before their make believe parents tried to fool them again. Hermione woke one night to find the door to their room had been locked from the outside and the window nailed shut.

She woke Severus to tell him what she found.

"Miss Granger, this time with you has just recently reached bearable. Must you wake me up with your inane findings."

"I just thought you should know they'll be taking us out again tomorrow." She pouted slightly at his weak attempt at scolding her.

"What do you expect me to do with this knowledge then?" Severus argued tiredly from where he slept, Hermione stopped, not knowing how to reply, why had she woken him? He knew that it would be happening. He knew how theyd' have to proceed the next morning. Yet, she felt the need to wake him up and hear his voice.

"If that is all, Ill be going back to bed." Severus smirked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I suppose thats everything. I'm sure you remember the plan, then?"

"Do you think I cannot handle such simple tasks as some breadcrumbs and a chicken bone, Miss Granger?" His voice, not as angry as he wanted it to sound.

"I was just making sure, Professor. I just don't want anything to go wrong."

Snape could sense that she was worried and he almost cared. Almost. He turned away from her in his bed and let his eyes close again.

"Everything will be fine." He whispered just loud enough for her to hear.

Hermione's eyes widened in the slight shock that Professor Snape had actually reassured her. He didn't make a snippy comment about her over eagerness to learn or poke fun at the fact that her two best friends were less than exemplary. He simply said what she needed to hear and that was that.

She didn't know what to do because there in the dark she was sure she felt a tinge of that old school-girl crush coming back to her and she wasn't prepared to deal with that right now. So, instead of face reality, if thats what you could call what was going on, she simply went to bed and forced her thoughts to stop.

The next morning the sun woke both of them and they went to a small breakfast of an egg and old toast. It was just after they had both hid their toast in their pockets that their dear step-mother announced to them that they would again be taking a trip into the woods.

"Be careful not to get lost this time, children." She smiled endearingly at both of them.

"Oh, we wont, mother." Severus assured looking at her with ice in his eyes, the word mother slung like a weapon from his lips.

The woman looked at him in shock, almost dropping the plates she was clearing from the table, before regaining her composure and turning quickly to the sink.

Hermione and Severus smiled at each other.

"Time to go, kids!" Their father came in looking rather dejected and hurried them toward the door, "Your mother's decided to stay home this time, so its just us." He tried his hardest to smile, but he just managed to look crazy.

So, off again they went into the woods and they went through the motions once again. Breadcrumbs were dropped onto the forest floor and attempts at conversation were made until once again they were left alone in the middle of the forest.

"Well this was just an emotionally exhausting experience." Hermione said, setting at the base of a tree.

Severus grunted in reply and found a tree next to her to take up residence under.

"I've always hated this story, you know?" Hermione glanced over at him, "It's horrid and to think parents like this actually exist. I don't understand it."

Severus was quiet for a long while before replying, "Well, it isn't like the father wants to let his children go. The step-mother is the problem here. I still don't understand the point of this story. I suppose there are worse things a father can do to his children."

Their eyes met and Hermione knew that he had meant to let her understand something about his own past.

The silence washed calmly over them. It wasn't uncomfortable, it was full of an understanding. It was the most peaceful they'd been around each other since they'd met.

Night fell once again as the moon brightened the forest and the crickets began to chirp. They stood silently and went off in search of the house they were sure they would find.

On the way back to the cottage in the woods, Hermione quizzed Severus on the stories they'd be going through, just as they had been doing in the weeks before their second trip to the woods. He seemed to understand what he would be doing and Hermione trusted his intelligence so she wasn't really worried that everything was going to work out fine.

"So, you think Merlin will be able to help us?" He asked her, intrigued despite himself about her theory.

"I can only hope so, we haven't any other way of getting out of here, other than perhaps completing The Sword in the Stone, but that could very well send us back to the beginning of the book." She replied.

"I suppose so. I don't want to take another chance like that. I've had enough of being this young again. Although, I've been happy with this youthful spine that doesn't hurt when I walk."

She smiled at him, surprised he was actually talking to her like she existed for once. After they thought their feet might fall off, they finally came to a small house made of candy in the middle of a clearing and, after all, they were pretty hungry. Severus turned to look at Hermione with raised brows in question, he was certain in all his years of teaching no muggle student had mentioned houses built out of sweet confectionery to be normal.

"And this part?"

"The witches house, although probably just some old muggle hag." Hermione dismissed.

They hurried over to a piece of the roof and started munching on the delicious gingerbread roof, a liquorice window sill, some chocolate bar shingles. After they had cleared a good portion away and they both started feeling rather ill, and at that very moment, a short, ugly witch opened the door and walked out.

"Who's that nibbling on my house?" She demanded, seeming to be a fearful witch, appearing however a hot headed, quite tame little old woman.

Hermione rolled her eyes at the obvious, stereotypical witch that had emerged. "It's just us forest animals." She answered drily.

"Forest animals don't speak. You sound like children." The witch spoke again, "Come closer, my dears, and let me get a look at you."

'Forest animals don't speak, indeed.' Severus thought to himself, 'from what Hermione had told him this past week, that is all they did.'

The two of them inched forward to the old lady and she grabbed hold of their shoulders, pinching slightly.

"Why the two of you are skin and bones! This will never do. Come inside and I'll make you some food."

Knowingly, they followed woman inside her house and she made them quite a feast that made their stomachs turn with all the sugar already in them. It wasn't long before the witch trapped Severus-Hansel in a cage and Hermione-Gretel chained to the wall and they weren't the least bit surprised, why would they be?

Day after day, the witch would make Hermione feed Severus a feast while she had scraps to live off of, even though he would sneak her a bit of food. He couldn't even eat all the food she was giving him, but she'd get angry if he didn't try to eat most of it.

Every day she would tell him to reach his finger out to her so she could see if he was getting plump and every day she would get frustrated at his lack of weight gain. Finally, there came the day when she was fed up.

She turned to the girl, chained to the corner of the room, "Enough waiting, I'm eating your wretched little brother today. Get over here, girl and light the oven for me."

Hermione did as she was told, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves and waited for the oven to get hot.

The witch came back to see if she was finished and leaned down to feel the oven, "Girl, I need to you open the oven and make sure it's hot enough. Get down there."

Hermione leaned toward the stove and told her, "I don't know if I can, Maam. The stove seems a little small for me."

"Nonsense!" The witch spat, "Move out of the way, I'll check it."

She shoved her out of the way and leaned over to peer in herself. Hermione took up the space behind her and shoved her in with all her might and closed the door on her. Behind her the witch screamed and cursed, fighting against the door, Hermione fought to keep it closed and as the last words of the witch died behind her, fog over came her vision and Hermione was in a large room.

She looked around to see where she was, a small window was on one side of the room and a heavy chained door was on the other. The rest of the room held a bed, a dresser, a vanity, some chairs, and a few odds and ends. Looking in the mirror, Hermione smiled to herself to see the long brown braid that reached far around the room and knew that her plan had worked, at least so far.

Now, she just had to sit and wait.

A old woman's voice called from the window, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair. So I may climb thy golden stairs."


End file.
